Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Length:
96 mins.
Rated:
PG
Format: Anamorphic
Widescreen · 2.20:1 : Region 1
Subtitles: English,
French, Spanish
Two Disk Set Extras: Commentary Track;
Documentary; Featurettes; Deleted Scenes; Still Galleries Trailers
Jeff Bridges ....Kevin Flynn/Clu
Bruce Boxleitner ....Alan Bradley/Tron
David Warner ....Ed Dillinger/Sark/Master Control Program (voice)
Cindy Morgan ....Lora/Yori
Barnard Hughes ....Dr. Walter Gibbs/Dumont
Dan Shor ....Ram/Co-worker who wants popcorn
Peter Jurasik .... Crom
Tony Stephano ....Peter/Sark’s Lieutenant
Craig Chudy ....Warrior #1
Vince Deadrick Jr. ....Warrior #2
Sam Schatz ....Expert Disc Warrior
Jackson Bostwick ....Head Guard
David S. Cass Sr. ....Factory Guard
Gerald Berns ....Guard #1
Bob Neill .... Guard #2
Ted White ....Guard #3
Mark Stewart ....Guard #4
Michael Sax ....Guard #5
Tony Brubaker ....Guard #6
Charlie Picerni .... Tank Commander
Pierre Vuilleumier ....Tank Gunner #1
Erik Cord ....Tank Gunner #2
Loyd Catlett .... Conscript #1/Video Game Cowboy
Richard Bruce Friedman ....Video Game Player
Michael Dudikoff ....Conscript #2 (as Michael Dudikoff II)
Rick Feck ....Boy in Video Game Arcade
John Kenworthy .... Boy in Video Game Arcade
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Jerry Maren…(uncredited)
Directed by…Steven Lisberger
Writing credits (in credits order)
Steven Lisberger (story) and Bonnie Macbird (story) Steven Lisberger
Produced by
Harrison Ellenshaw....associate producer
Donald Kushner.... producer
Ron Miller.... executive producer
Original music by…Wendy Carlos
Cinematography by…Bruce Logan
Film Editing by…Jeff Gourson
Casting by…Pam Polifroni
Production Design by…Jean Giraud Syd
Mead Dean Edward Mitzner
Art Direction by…John B. Mansbridge Al
Roelofs
Set Decoration by…Roger M. Shook (as Roger Shook)
Costume Design by…Eloise Jensson Rosanna
Norton Lorry Richter
(men’s costumes)
Makeup Department
Gary Liddiard....makeup artist
Robert J. Schiffer....makeup artist
Joy Zapata....hair stylist
Production Management
Ralph Sariego....unit production manager
Ted Schilz....studio production manager
In 1982 I had been working in the film industry for about
10 years and, as a fan of sci-fi – it was 5 years after ‘Star Wars’ and 3
years since Disney’s own ‘The Black Hole’ – I was as keen as most to
find out what Disney had come up with. ‘Tron’
stands as a groundbreaking feature film with a unique style that has never been
duplicated. If you listen to the commentary on ‘The Last Starfighter’ (the
first film where all the effects are computer generated) you can get some
realisation of the impact that ‘Tron’ had amongst the effects and animation
community.
It’s with the benefit of this hindsight that it becomes easier to appreciate
‘Tron’ for all that it accomplished rather than deriding it for its few
shortcomings. Disney previously released ‘Tron’ as a bare-bones DVD with no
extras and a problematic non-anamorphic transfer. This new 2-DVD special edition
puts this all to right. Fans of the film are now treated to a beautiful new
anamorphic transfer, a new 5.1 audio mix, and an entire second disc packed with
extras.
In ‘Tron’, Jeff Bridges stars as Kevin Flynn, a former employee of ENCOM
whose life’s work was stolen out from under from him by his supervisor, Ed
Dillinger (David Warner). In Flynn’s absence Dillinger has introduced the
Master Control Program (MCP), a tyrannical computer program that seeks to
dominate not only the world of bits and bytes but the physical world as well.
When Flynn’s former co-workers Alan (Bruce Boxleitner) and Lora (Cindy Morgan)
find themselves locked out of the computer network they convince Flynn to return
to ENCOM with them in an attempt to hack into the system, shut down the MCP, and
find proof of Dillinger’s wrongdoing. But the MCP isn’t about to go down
without a fight and it zaps Flynn with an experimental beam that transforms his
physical body into a computer program at the mercy of the MCP and its digital
minions. In this alternate computer world, programs take on the appearance of
their real world programmers and Flynn soon hooks up with the Alan look-alike,
Tron, a security program sent to defeat the MCP. The chief obstacle in their way
is the evil program Sark, the MCP’s lieutenant and Dillinger doppelganger. To
find and defeat the MCP, Flynn and Tron must traverse a vast computer world
populated by programs both good and bad. During their journey they make use of
such modes of transport as light-cycles, tanks, recognisers, and solar sailers
which afford the film’s creators ample opportunity to show off their then
cutting-edge technology and production art. The unabashed "look what we can
do" feel of its fully realized computer world gives the film’s CGI a much
more prominent air than is typically seen in movies these days where the whole
point is to try and fool the audience with transparent computer special effects.
In addition, the design of everything from the costumes to the myriad background
matte paintings reveal that ‘Tron’ was a film made by true artists who just
so happened to be branching out into the new realm of computer 
animation.
After spending some time viewing the extras it’s easy to excuse the filmmakers
for some of the movie’s more glaring shortcomings. ‘Tron’ started out as a
germ of an idea but when Disney became the only studio to back the project it
was suddenly put on the fast track. In a matter of months the team had to finish
the script, select the cast, and figure just how they were going to make their
pie-in-the-sky special effects ideas a reality. Under those pressures it
shouldn’t come as a surprise that the final film isn’t as polished and
professional as it could have been. ‘Tron’ was filmed in 65mm, is presented
in its original 2.20:1 ratio and is anamorphically enhanced. It’s important to
understand just how much abuse was heaped on the film elements in the drive to
achieve the cutting-edge special effects. In some cases, a single second of film
was subjected to over 100 different physical processes to get the final look.
For this reason, the film has a somewhat worn and soft appearance for much of
its runtime and no amount of restoration work is going to change that. The real
world footage is quite nice with vibrant colours, only slight film grain, and
very solid black levels. As the movie shifts into the computer world the image
quality drastically changes. Here the film grain is quite heavy, colours are
either muted or neon, and black levels tend more toward grey. But again, this is
just how ‘Tron’ looks so the DVD can’t really be faulted.
‘Tron’ is billed as a special edition and the bulk of the included extras
are truly informative and entertaining. Disc one features the film itself along
with a commentary track culled from the previous laserdisc boxed set. Featuring
director Steve Lisberger, producer Donald Kushner, effects guru Harrison
Ellenshaw, and effects supervisor Richard Taylor, this is an engaging track that
is chock full of information. While it’s a given that much of the discussion
focuses on the production design of "Tron," the filmmakers also delve
into the original ideas behind the story and the more human aspects of making
this film. The remainder of the bonus features are on disc two and chief among
these is the brand new 90-minute documentary, “The Making of 
Tron”.
Featuring interviews with all of the principal participants -- except for
David Warner -- this feature succeeds at explaining the origins of ‘Tron’
and the continuing appeal of the film some two decades later. The cast and crew
all have fond memories of this very difficult project and are clearly
enthusiastic about participating on this new DVD. Also included in the
documentary are behind-the-scenes peeks, early production designs, and a handful
of snippets from the movie.
Many of the other extras on the disc are at least touched upon during this piece so this really is a good place to start as it makes some of the follow-on special features a bit redundant. This is just the type of in-depth documentary that is sorely lacking from most current so-called special editions. The "Development" section of the disc offers up some early ‘Tron’ test footage and concept art as well as some of the previous animation work done by Lisberger Studios. "Digital Imagery" provides five Featurettes exploring the groundbreaking CGI used on ‘Tron’ and highlights test footage from MAGI and Triple-I -- the outside studios that were hired to work on "Tron." The "Music" section offers a few gems for fans of Wendy Carlos’ work. First up is the light-cycle scene with an alternate music track that was removed from the final film. Next are the end credits featuring Carlos’ original music instead of the Journey song "Only Solutions" that was used in the final theatrical release. "Publicity" offers four theatrical trailers as well as a trailer consisting of test footage. Also included is the 5-minute trailer that was thrown together for the National Association of Theater Owners convention and acted as a test of sorts for the filmmaking process that was to be used for "Tron." Also available are galleries of production photos and advertising and merchandising artwork. "Deleted Scenes" consists of two ‘love scenes’ between Tron and Yori – one of which was completed – the other is just story board – but they were removed as it was thought they slowed the story too much. Also included is an alternate opening prologue that introduces the world of ‘Tron’ through some opening text. The "Design" section offers up a myriad of animated and still galleries that cover the design work for practically every character, vehicle, and environment in the movie. "Storyboarding" features both animated and still storyboard galleries as well as a storyboard-to-final film comparison that uses the light-cycle scene as its example. These extras provide an incredible amount of information and are laid out in a logical and easy to navigate manner. Disney is getting better and better at their DVD user interfaces and ‘Tron’ features some amazing, but fairly non-obtrusive, animated menus.
What more is there to say? At long last Disney has graced
‘Tron’ with a deluxe special edition truly worthy of such a groundbreaking
and influential film. ‘Tron’ certainly has its detractors and wasn’t
exactly a box office goldmine but I can think of few films that have so
influenced an entire generation of computer programmers, filmmakers, and
artists. This is one film that had an impacted on nearly
every special effects movie since without ever being directly copied.
Featuring an excellent new video transfer, a solid audio mix, and a wealth of
bonus features, the new ‘Tron’ 2-disc special edition is a real treat for
fans of the film. While not every viewer will be swayed by its charms, anyone
with even the slightest interest in the history of film, animation, or computer
graphics design really must sit down with ‘Tron’ and experience this
remarkable film for the first -- or even fiftieth -- time.
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